Here is the weekly summary of news alerts from Google Breast Cancer and Cancer for week ending 14 February.

We love you! We’re helping to cure cancer!

I was spoiled for choice this week – all my favourite topics came up (and not a single tedious cohort study): curcumin (wow!), intravenous Vitamin C (double-wow!), more mouse trials (see Valentine’s Day card they sent us), cancer vaccine, new drugs (wow-wow-and-wow) and tamoxifen.

Curcumin:One of my most popular posts is on curcumin. Scientists have now discovered that putting an implant of curcumin into mice halted tumour growth vs ingesting it orally. Before we all rush out and get one … remember, it’s only been tested on mice, and only available in mice-size implants. However, the good news is that intravenous curcumin is available. The bad news, it’s in Germany and only six clinics at the moment have access to it. The good news, it’s available from the reputable PraxisKlinik Siebenhuner integrative clinic in Frankfurt (costs about Euro1,600 for six infusions).

Intravenous Vitamin C: There’s a study from the University of Kansas on the efficacy of intravenous Vitamin C in ameliorating chemotherapy symptoms – I’m not sure why it’s “new” news – this has been part of the protocol at the University of Kentucky for awhile. If you’ve followed my blog, you know I tried IV C and it didn’t work i.e. shrink the tumour. Having said that, in the two years I was on IV C, I never got any metastasis, so maybe something was working.

Tamoxifen:In Best of Breast (w/e 31 Jan) I mentioned that bodybuilders were taking tamoxifen, i.e. going out and buying it. Well, this week it’s revealed that bodybuilders may be unwittingly taking tamoxifen in bodybuilding supplements – it’s not even listed on the label. In case you were wondering … they take tamoxifen because they want to stop their man boobs from growing from steroid use.

This week’s headline: Finally … with all the juicy topics lined up, I chose to lead with a computer game that you can download to your iPhone or Smartphone and play and help scientists analyse real genetic data for cancer faster. Wouldn’t it be great to help beat cancer and have some fun too? Game on!

I’m in Frankfurt on a business trip and thanks to Peter, managed to steal some time to visit a German cancer clinic.

The clinic is PraxisKlinik Siebenhuner and is on the outskirts of Frankfurt. Peter uses it for hyperthermia after a trans-arterial chemoembolisation session with Vogl. It’s about a 30-minute taxi journey from the University of Frankfurt where Prof Vogl practices.

I was impressed by the set-up at the clinic. It was pristine, very clean, and everything was tasteful. The infusion room was huge, about three times the size of one of the clinics in England, and was separated from the nurses’ station by muslin drapes. There was a lot of use of warm colours and wood, and it didn’t look or smell like a hospital. All the beds in the treatment rooms were clean, and covered in fresh linen. The nurses and doctors were friendly, and made time to chat to me about the treatments.

Treatments were standard for a German oncology clinic: IPT, full-body hyperthermia and local hyperthermia. Infusions included B17, DMSO, DCA.

They had one Heckel tent for whole-body hyperthermia, and two oncothermia machines. They also had some new equipment I’ve not come across. One was a Galvanotherapy machine, and the other a Bemer machine. My understanding of the latter is that it is used before the patient has infusions, and it primes the body to be in a better state for the infusions, by promotion circulation in the body’s micro-capillaries. The effects apparently last for 12 hours.

I had a quick chat with Dr Siebenhuner – he was very friendly, and kindly gave me a free consultation and some suggestions on what his clinic could offer me by way of treatment plans. I told him my dilemma: that chemo and radiotherapy had been recommended, but would be counterproductive to my nerve injury.

He told me to avoid folic acid and iron as it would feed the cancer cells. Because my tumour markers have always been within reference range, he suggested getting some genetic blood markers done, then a 2-week course of infusions, and then another test to see if the treatments were working. If not, then perhaps chemo and radiotherapy would be the best options. The cost of the bloods tests would be about Euro300 for each set. He also mentioned getting the circulating tumour cells count (CTC count), and that apart from RGCC, there was a lab in Germany that also did this test.

Incidentally, PraxisKlinik Siebenhuner is one of the few clinics in Germany offering intravenous curcumin. A course of infusions is expensive – approximately Euros 1,600 for a set of 10.

Dr Siebenhuner is one of those doctors who’s open to trying new things, and learning new things and that for me is a hallmark of a good doctor. I met him again at the weekend at an integrative treatment conference in Fulda. He asked me questions about the RGCC test and was keen to find out more so that he could integrate it into his practice. I chatted to him some more about his clinic, and he was very open about the services he could offer. For example, IPT, DCA, B17 which are not currently on Hallwang’s menu. Also, because his is a day-clinic, there aren’t any in-house nursing charges, so he is a cheaper alternative, if the patient doesn’t need 24/7 nursing or intensive doctoring.

I wanted to stop by on Monday on the way to the airport to get some blood tests run because Dr Siebenhuner offered a different approach from Hallwang, and I thought it would be interesting to see what more could be done. Also, he very kindly offered to give me a free consultation based on the tests. Alas, I ran out of time on Monday and couldn’t fit in the consultation.

What was particularly perceptive on the part of Dr Siebenhuner was a discussion we had on why some of the treatments I’d had had not touched the tumour to the extent that they should have, e.g. intravenous vitamin C. Dr Siebenhuner said that perhaps it was due to lack of perfusion to the tumour, i.e. the blood supply to the tumour was limited, so the infusions couldn’t get to the tumour. He offered to do an ultrasound to see if this was the case.

If indeed, perfusion was an issue, the solution would have been to add DMSO or Procaine to the infusions. This would have increased the permeability of the cytotoxic agents.

It was as if a light bulb had gone off over my head. As readers of this blog know, I’ve tried many complementary therapies, with limited success with regards to shrinking the tumour [the only thing that really worked was the TACE procedure using chemotherapy, by Prof. Vogl]. And it would explain why the only two women I know for whom IV C worked had had DMSO and Vitamin B12 in conjunction with IV C. Unfortunately, the use of both DMSO and Vitamin B12 are now illegal in England. But not in Germany. No one so far has suggested doing an ultrasound of the breast region to see what the blood supply is like there.

So I think Dr Siebenhuner is definitely worth a visit and consultation for his willingness to explore new avenues of treatment, ability to think out-of-the-box, his warmth, and also his clinic’s proximity to Frankfurt airport and Prof Vogl’s hospital. Please note – Peter Trayhurn was introduced to Dr Siebenhuner on the recommendation of Prof Vogl, so that is a very good testimonial.

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